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the generosity of their natures, the deep regret and manly avowal of Sir Henry Hodson, accompanied with the restitution of their property;—notwithstanding also the distressing circumstances, so analogous to their own, that had led to the robbery;—the De Brookes might still have coincided in some measure with the sentiment which had elicited from the offender so full, impartial, and elaborate a sentence of self-condemnation. But there was one feature in the mingled portraiture of vice and virtue now lying before him that, relieved and heightened by a contrast of incidents which his own fortunes presented, had the effect of magnifying the merits and of diminishing the demerits of the case to the mind of De Brooke, in a degree favourable to the Baronet far beyond the most romantic of his hopes; and, indeed, if truth alone were to decide, far beyond what the Christian duty of forgiveness would either exact or justify.